Every Step of the Way
by themauveowl
Summary: After the Final Battle, Harry and Ginny reunite. More Chapters to come in the form of another story. Please review.


Harry and Ginny- After Final Battle

He'd done it. Voldemort was dead, and he was never coming back. As Harry staggered in fatigue and disbelief, he was surrounded by grateful crowds of witches and wizards suddenly free from Voldemort's reign of pain and fear. He shook hands and received bone crushing hugs, and just as he was about to excuse himself, he saw Ron, Hermione, and Luna breaking through the crowd. They pulled him out and led him towards the doors of the great hall. As he was about to leave, Harry suddenly remembered Ginny and began to scan the room frantically. He stopped when he felt Ron's hand on his shoulder.

"She's over there mate, with Mum and Dad."

Ginny was locked in a full force embrace from Mrs. Weasley while Mr. Weasley held them both. She turned to see Harry starring at her and smiled at him weakly with tears in her eyes. She felt relief that he was safe and that the battle was over, but she couldn't forget how she had felt when Hagrid carried him in. She wanted to rush to him and hold him, to feel that he was really truly there.

Harry scanned her body to see if she was damaged and only saw cuts and bruises, the scars of almost everyone who had fought. They still angered him; she shouldn't have been fighting at all. When she'd almost been killed—he shuddered remembering. Her tears reminded him of the fact that the family had lost Fred in the battle, the one of the six boys with whom Ginny was closest. He took a step towards her, wanting to comfort her and protect her from this pain. People were always sympathetic to the amount of tragedy he had experienced thus far in his life, but nothing compared to seeing his loved ones experience the same consequences of death and loss. She seemed to step towards him too, but at the same moment, her four brothers returned to her and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. As Ron walked over too, Harry realized that they needed some time to comfort each other as a family.

"Harry, there will be plenty of time, I promise. She'll still be here in a few hours. You need some rest. Come on," Hermione suggested gently. Remembering that she must have wanted to be with Ron as much as he wanted to be with Ginny, he let her guide him to the Gryffindor common room. Luna brought them some food, and Harry explained to Hermione why he had to sacrifice himself to Voldemort. He told her that he was a horcrux, and that he'd come back to life because that was all that Voldemort had killed. He decided to save the events at King's Cross Station for later.

"Harry, that's so awful," Hermione said with tears in her eyes.

"Yeah, but it turned out alright, didn't it?" Harry replied with a slight smile. "I want you to know that I'm really happy for you and Ron. You need each other, and it doesn't have to change anything with any of our friendships, okay?"

"Thanks, Harry," Hermione said with a blush. "What about you and Ginny? Do you still…you know..."

"Ummm, yeah, I do. But after everything that's happened… I just hope things can work between us."

"I'm sure they will, Harry. She's always cared about you so much. Oh my goodness! We've been talking for a long time. I'll explain everything to the others. Go get some sleep; we'll all be here when you wake up."

"Thanks, Hermione, for everything. I'm so glad that Ron and I saved from that troll first year," he said with a laugh.

"Me too!" she replied happily. As he reached the stairs she said, "Oh! Harry? You mustn't feel guilty for anything that's happened tonight. You did more than anyone could have ever asked from you, and no one blames you for anything. Just know that, please."

"Thanks Hermione," he smiled weakly at her as he headed up the stairs. While taking a shower felt nice, he concluded that sleep sounded much better. Although Hermione assured him that he shouldn't feel guilty, he did. He remembered Lupin and Tonks, and the little boy they'd left behind. He knew that Teddy would have a much happier life than he had. He would see to that. The toddler was sure to receive more love than his heart could take, what with his adoring grandmother, multiple friends of his deceased parents, as well as Harry. He let himself cry for everyone that had died, for all of their loved ones who would miss them, and finally, for his own losses. It was relieving rather than saddening to release the emotion he'd felt for the past year. Finally, his tears helped him to drift off to the first deep dreamless sleep he'd had in months.

Twelve hours later, he woke up, feeling as though no time had passed. When the clock proved him wrong, he looked around the dormitory. Ron was in his bed snoring with his mouth wide open. Harry smiled, and for the first time realized that life would go on. Hermione and Ron were still here, the Weasley family was almost completely unscathed, and Voldemort couldn't hurt them anymore. Remembering the Weasleys, Harry was overwhelmed by his desire to see Ginny. He jumped out of bed and reached the common room before he realized that she might still be sleeping or with her family. He sat on a couch by the fireplace and thought about her. His body ached to hold her, to feel her warmth radiate against him. He fell asleep once again, remembering the way her lips felt against his. His dreams, however, didn't match his pleasant forethoughts…

Ginny walked downstairs from the girls' dormitories and saw Harry sleeping on the couch near the fireplace. His chest was bare and she could see the damage that had been done in the last year. She restrained herself from running to his side, and as she got closer, she realized that his face looked troubled. She knelt by his side and reached out hesitantly to touch him. Before she did he started talking in his sleep,

"NO! Don't touch her, please! GINNY! No, please, no..."

She touched his face and tried to soothe him.

"Shh, Harry, it's okay. I'm right here, Harry, it's alright, I'm here."

He heard her voice… how was that possible if she…his eyes opened to two worried brown ones.

"Ginny?" he said groggily, reaching out to touch her cheek.

"Oh, Harry," she said sadly, closing her eyes and leaning into his touch.

He slowly got off of the couch, pulling Ginny up into a sweet embrace. He held her tight, remembering her near death experience the night before with Bellatrix Lestrange. As if he had needed another reason to despise the vicious death eater. Suddenly he heard Ginny let out a sob.

"Harry, you were dead, you were gone, and we'd all lost hope," she cried onto his shoulder.

"I'm here now Ginny, it's alright, I'm not going anywhere, it's alright," he repeated, soothing her.

"Harry, you've—you've been through so much, and I just want to help you heal but I don't know if I can… I miss Fred so much, and my family needs me to be strong… I feel so, so, weak, and, and…" she said as her crying increased.

Harry held her tighter, feeling her desperation and wanting to fix it.

"Ginny, please, don't, for one second, think that you're pain is less important or smaller than mine. You've lost a brother, Ginny, and it's not weak to miss him or to be hurting right now. From what Neville told me, this past year at Hogwarts was miserable, and I'm so sorry that I wasn't here to protect you. But I'm here now, Ginny, and I'm not going anywhere, okay? We don't have to be afraid anymore, we don't have to hide! You and I can…" he paused; he wasn't sure how to continue. Did she want to be with him? Had he hurt her too much last year for her to trust him?

Ginny lifted her head to look at him. Had he just been trying to say that they could be together? She'd been longing to be in his arms for a year, and she finally was. She understood his reasons for leaving her at the end of his sixth year, but it hadn't really mattered since her entire family was associated with Harry. The idea that they could be together without fear worked its way down from her brain to her heart and made her feel hope like she hadn't let herself feel the entire year. She must have looked at him reassuringly because he smiled down at her. As he cupped her face with his hand and brought her face closer to his, she thought that her heart was going to burst through her chest. Their kiss was soft and sweet, but full of passion. The feeling of his lips hungrily moving against hers made her hold onto him tighter. His hand brushed the skin on her lower back and she tried to move as he took in a sharp breath—he'd found her scar.

"Ginny, how…?" he trailed off, tracing the scar with his fingertips. He pulled her face away from his shoulder to look into her eyes. She shrugged.

"Detentions were rough this year, Harry. And it's not like you went unscathed either," she said with watery eyes, as she placed feather like touches on the most prominent scar on his chest. He closed his eyes at her touch and sighed weakly.

"But you weren't supposed to suffer; you were supposed to be okay. We weren't together--"

"Harry, did you really think that they were going to ignore my family? You didn't break up with Ron. They knew about your connection with us. And I didn't exactly sit around waiting to be punished; I was trying to fight back. I wasn't going to sit around while you were out risking your life everyday."

"Are there others?"

"Others…?"

"Other scars, Ginny."

"Harry, what good will that do? You'll just blame yourself for not being here—"

"Yeah, maybe I will, but I need to help you heal too. Please, Ginny," he pleaded.

She sighed and showed him her palm with the message, "Harry Potter will not succeed" inscribed in her skin.

"It seems Umbridge wasn't far from being a death eater," Ginny said jokingly. But Harry wasn't in a joking mood. He studied her hand closely, remembering the pain of his similar punishment a few years back. Ginny removed her hand from his when she realized what he was thinking.

"How did you get the one on your back, Gin?"

"Harry, I don't think—"

"Ginny?"

"I talked back in class. They said that you were weak and wouldn't last against Voldemort. I said that you'd already defeated him multiple times and that you weren't using the help of death eaters to fight him. The whole class started yelling your name and cheering for you."

"But what did they do—"

"Some spell that cuts into your skin, I don't remember what it was." He placed his hand over the large cut and pulled her closer to him again. "There aren't anymore that you can see."

"What do you mean 'that I can see'?"

"Well they tried to get information out of us a lot, mostly things that we had no idea about. So, they did what death eaters do…"

"Not the Cruciartus?" When she nodded, he felt a wave of anger rise within him. He'd already heard Hermione suffer that curse. He'd hoped that none of his loved ones would ever feel it, and here, the girl he loved had experienced it multiple times. He decided right then and there to shield her from harm for the rest of his life.

"No one's ever going to hurt you again, Ginny. Do you hear me? Never."

"You can't promise me that, Harry," she said gently, one hand still on his chest, the other resting on his angry face.

"Try me," he said before pulling her into the roughest kiss they'd ever shared. It was full of promise, anger, love, and longing. When they were out of breath, he rested his head against hers while she breathed into his neck.

"I love you, Harry Potter," she whispered, placing a gentle kiss on his jaw.

"I love you too Ginny Weasley, more than you could ever know," he replied, kissing her forehead.

After holding each other for a few minutes, Harry heard Ginny yawn.

"Here, you need to rest some more," he said, coaxing her back onto the couch. "We have some busy days ahead of us." He held her facing him, and before she drifted to sleep she said,

"And you'll stay with me?"

"Every step of the way."

Harry meant it with all his heart. He never wanted to leave her side. He felt the gentle rhythm of her breathing and was thankful for the opportunity to finally hold her so close.

Ginny smiled and rested her head against his chest, hearing his heartbeat. She knew that it was beating for everyone who had died, everyone who had lost, and for her. And in that moment, she could feel that all of their loved ones who had died, Fred especially, were smiling down on them.


End file.
